The next film of the Cinema Rediscovered tour, My 20th Century by Ildikó Enyedi, opens on 7 Oct at ICA (London), Tyneside Cinema and DCA (Dundee) before touring cinemas across the UK. Touring this ground breaking film extends the reach of the Women on the Periphery strand of the festival which celebrates brave, bold, funny and warm storytelling from and about extraordinary women.

Ildikó Enyedi’s most recent film On Body and Soul won the Golden Bear at the 2017 Berlin Film Festival. This tour of her earlier film is an opportunity for audiences across the UK to see this important filmmaker’s newly restored first feature with support from the Hungarian National Film Archive and BFI awarding funds from National Lottery.

Cinema Rediscovered Festival Co-curator Tara Judah comments:

The greatest film trick cinema history ever pulled was convincing the world that women filmmakers and women’s stories didn’t exist: their light shined bright, but history dimmed them and said we imagined it. My 20th Century is a prime example, ripe for rediscovery.”

My 20th Century picked up the Golden Camera Award for best debut at Cannes in 1989, all the more remarkable given that the director was only in her early thirties in a very male-dominated industry.

It spins a tale of twin girls Dóra and Lili, born in Budapest at the very moment that Edison’s electric light-bulb is unveiled to the world. Shot in gorgeous monochrome by cinematographer Tibor Máthé, the film echoes the magic and exuberance of early cinema and celebrates the thrilling technological marvels as well as the political and sexual upheavals of the time.

Other cinemas on the tour include Belfast's QFT, GFT in Glasgow, Filmhouse in Edinburgh, HOME in Manchester, Showroom Sheffield and Picturehouse in Leeds.

The film is also available on DVD and Blu-ray on Second Run.

Cinema Rediscovered is produced by Watershed with support from: BFI awarding funds from National Lottery, MUBI, Park Circus, STUDIOCANAL, UNESCO City of Film.

via Watershed